snipminimal flap amplitude.

One thing I'm genuinely curious about: given the flapping amplitude, why
is the pylon so high?

I am not expert on this and was not involved in construction... the
pylon is merely for wing support at rest, the flapping is achieved by
drawing down on a cable to the underside of the wing, generated lift
makes the wing rise up, and the process repeats.


Are you saying 19 seconds at 25 KPH is all ground effect? Surely you
might agree that even in ground effect one loses height and speed at
some rate? Or have you discovered perpetual gliding? ;-)

No, of course not, just that I don't recall other MPA attempts claiming
records until the Cramer Prize had been collected.


This is for a flapping flight.


Subsidiary question which others have asked in other places: what is the
glide performance without flapping? The aircraft looks as it it should be
a fairly efficient glider, so I'm curious about its sinking speed and
glide ratio.

The team could likely tell you, see: hpo.ornithopter.net

As a glider pilot I would describe the sink rate as considerable, lots
of drag, not a floater to my eye.


What data? Apart from a couple of videos, neither of which are said to be
of the record attempt, I've seen no other information. A link to it would
be very much appreciated. So would a description of the flapping mechanism

There are now lots of stories on the major news sites in Canada, big
press conference at the field with satellite trucks and all!

The FAI has attended the flight and reviewed data and is to approve
the flight officially in October I was told. I cannot say if the data
would be released to the public, but I would guess the team would tell
you what they recorded and how.

See Youtube for more videos, including one crash...:
www.youtube.com/user/OrnithopterProject

The pilot pushes out with his legs, by pulleys that draws a cable
downward on both wings, lift generated then lifts the wings back up,
repeat... very simple. They did not use arm motion as originally
planned.

Bob